Breaking Eye Contact to Google
We're going to give these microbehaviors names and get our civility back on track.
Today on my walk a dad, teen son and their dog walked and chatted animatedly about five ten paces ahead. At a lull in their conversation I asked what kind of dog it was, and told them the same breed was in one of my favorite netflix shows where a dog is so cute and captivating its owner uses it to hypnotize victims and embezzle their money.
The son broke eye contact and with me and dad followed his son's gaze. I got the hint ("go away stranger, I was enjoying this time with my dad/son.") Or so I thought.
I pulled ahead of them to focus on my destination when I heard them mention "show" and realized they'd broken eye contact to google the name of the netflix show.
These eye contact breaks are happening everywhere and WERE happening everywhere in the great communications changeover that began in 2007. They are misleading. The eye contact break coincides with a verbal break in the conversation.
I resumed conversing with them when I realized my mistake. Talked for another minute then said goodbye.
We need a name for this microbehavior, as its one of many tech induced isolation units [tiiu] we can absolutely work around once we use a common language for it.
Today on my walk a dad, teen son and their dog walked and chatted animatedly about five ten paces ahead. At a lull in their conversation I asked what kind of dog it was, and told them the same breed was in one of my favorite netflix shows where a dog is so cute and captivating its owner uses it to hypnotize victims and embezzle their money.
The son broke eye contact and with me and dad followed his son's gaze. I got the hint ("go away stranger, I was enjoying this time with my dad/son.") Or so I thought.
I pulled ahead of them to focus on my destination when I heard them mention "show" and realized they'd broken eye contact to google the name of the netflix show.
These eye contact breaks are happening everywhere and WERE happening everywhere in the great communications changeover that began in 2007. They are misleading. The eye contact break coincides with a verbal break in the conversation.
I resumed conversing with them when I realized my mistake. Talked for another minute then said goodbye.
We need a name for this microbehavior, as its one of many tech induced isolation units [tiiu] we can absolutely work around once we use a common language for it.
